love, friends, and cherry blossoms

this week has definitely been a roller coaster ride. wednesday i was having a rough day, and my students saw that i was crying when i was on my break (they were in japanese class). they were so upset by it that they made letters for me, and on friday, mrs takemoto (the japanese teacher) and them gave me flowers and all the notes. they made my heart smile :) i have such wonderful kids, and their notes were adorable:
"miss rachel, don't cry because if you cry i am sad."
"i love you miss rachel"
"don't cry. you are so cute."
they've been praying for you mom! now when i ask for prayer requests during bible, they beat me to it! they raise their hands and say to pray for "miss rachel's mom" :)
since wednesday was rough on me, i went to laura's house to spend the night. we had fun drinking wine and watching mcleod's daughters (an australian version of the oc or one tree hill.. well, the drama part haha). it is a very addicting show and we stayed up way too late watching "just one more" haha. soo tired in the morning.. but totally worth it!! :)

i think the highlight of the week was teaching the kids "the b-i-b-l-e" in sign language.. they LOVED it. they wanted to do it over and over and over again haha.. and faster each time! they take their sign language seriously!! :) you should have seen their faces trying to concentrate fingerspelling bible as fast as they could.. so cute!

friday was night cafe. the high schoolers put together the fundraiser to help raise money for their class trip next year. everyone did such a great job! i helped with tickets, then went in to watch. there is a lot of talent at our school.. singing, hula, instruments, dancing.. the talent definitely shined!! when i was watching, i noticed that some of the fourth grade boys were in the corner playing ds together. i saw that it was mario kart, so i asked if i could play. it was funny because they thought i'd never played before, so the boy who was in first place (ryota) didn't want me to ruin his score so he had the other boy (william) let me use his. william was nice telling me which buttons to push and how to get a boost at the beginning, and i went along with it haha. right when i passed ryota, he started saying "william, stop telling miss rachel how to play" hahaha. after i won, i told them i've played before and i have the game at home, so he shouldn't feel to bad that i whooped him haha :) after night cafe was over and i helped clean up, i got to hold jed's little brother who is one.. so adorable!!! i told his mom that if jed is ever sick, dominic can come and take his place for the day. there were many laughs and great memories throughout the night.. i just love these people so much!

lina spent the night friday night, so we could get up and go to nago for the cherry blossom festival today. it was about an hour and a half drive, but sooo gorgeous on the way there. you drive along the coastline.. and with that gorgeous turquoise water, i won't complain about the long drive! :) nago is up north, and this part of the island is more tropical (more hills without tons of buildings.. very green!). this is the 47th annual cherry blossom festival... full of games, food, and performances. when we first arrived, i had to buy some yakitori (chicken on a stick). while i was waiting in line, i noticed an old man wearing a very familiar hat.. a SALEM/KEIZER VOLCANOES HAT!! i asked him if it was in fact a volcanoes hat, and he said that he got it when he was visiting his sister one year and she took him to a game. such a small world!!!the festival took place at the nago central park, which has some trails to walk with cherry blossoms all over.. so pretty. the stairs sucked.. i got my work out for the week! :)the top of the stairsafter we got to the top of the stairs, there were trails everywhere to walk. we went all over on top of the hill looking for cherry blossoms.. and ooo'd and aahhh'd every time :)when we went back down to the booths, i played darts to win a soccer ball for my students. if i got five bullseyes, i would have won a wii! all the food looked yummy.. if only i had tons of money to try everything!! the one weird thing was a chocolate covered corndog.. who knows.. maybe it tastes good haha. some of the games were very interesting. there were lots of shooting games (with cork guns and air soft guns), fishing games (color at the bottom of the object to win a prize), and darts.we found the performance tent and stayed there for a while. so many cute performances!! there were two kids per shisa (pronounced shishi.. it's a lion/dog) and they would bite at each other and roll across the stage.. very talented! one time they were rolling, and the kid who was the butt almost rolled out of the costume.. too cute.
the cutest kids got on stage to perform (make sure your sound is up.. they are sooo adorable shouting the words!!). one boy is a character.. see if you can find him ;)

there were also a group of kids performing eisa (dancing and drumming)



there is an upcoming ice festival somewhere in mainland japan, and a group of students are going there, so snow was brought to this festival. they had fun having a snowball fight.. some have never seen snow before! i saw enough of it at christmas ;)it was such a nice day today.. sunshine with a nice breeze. i've been looking forward to this festival since i first found out about it in september!! and i was not disappointed :)

never a dull moment :)

last week was only a four day school week, which was verrry nice :) nothing too crazy happened.. one funny story though! the designated area for my apartment complex's garbage is across the parking lot. tuesday morning before heading off to work, i was walking to put my trash in the spot when i noticed out of the corner of my eye a truck driving really slow keeping pace with me. i think a) it could be the garbage man following me so he can pick up the trash after i put it down, or b) it is someone i know and they are being funny by going slow until i recognize them (which really would only happen in the states haha.. i don't know that many people here for this option to seriously happen). so i finally look and it's this old asian man staring at me haha.. i say hi, he smiles this big goofy grin, and then drives off to go about his day. probably the strangest "stare story" i've encountered so far :)

an exciting thing that happened during the week was that i got my hair permanately straightened!! i've been wanting to do this FOREVER, but it's so expensive in the states! luckily, it is affordable here, and i found the cutest salon to go to. they were all super nice and were troopers.. it took four hours!!! my poor hair stylist had to take a break half way through, so a cute girl came over and gave me a head/neck massage while i waited. and i found out she was twenty-two also.. she got so excited haha... too cute. so now i don't have an ounce of curl on my head.. it's unbelievable!! i'm still amazed getting out of the shower with my hair straight and i can actually let it air dry or blow-dry it without any hassle. and it will last six to nine months!! i'm in heaven. :)

on friday, monica stayed the night with me. after skyping with philip and melissa (monica enjoyed that!), we went to jusco to eat mcdonalds and play at the arcade. it was my first time actually playing at the arcade and boy is it addicting!!! you play with tokens and the games are either slot machine style or those games where you try to get the pile of coins knocked over the edge. but in the states you never actually get the coins.. it's a rip-off. NOT HERE! there are little mini games in addition to knocking the coins off the edge. one coin game was a dinosaur theme. we got the coins in a bonus slot, and the t-rex came over to our window and roared at us while thirty coins came out of his mouth.. we got a lot of tokens with this game! then we went to a mario one that had a huge castle with all the mario characters in it. during the game, there is a screen with mario hitting different squares.. if you get three in a row of the same object, you play a mini-game to get more coins. we were sooo close to hitting the jackpot, but then we ran out of money haha. oh well. next time! :) after jusco, we went home and watched alvin and the chipmunks until she fell asleep. we woke up early on saturday (it's like bella spending the night haha) and i made pancakes for breakfast while we watched japanese cartoons.. very interesting!! one was about a dog who found a cow freezing in the snow, so he saved her and they became best friends. then the cow had to go back home and got on a plane. the dog pretended he wasn't going to miss her, but then when the plane started taking off, he started crying and yelling her name. the cow was crying in the plane and they looked at each other and waved before the plane left the runway. at the end, the dog got a picture in the mail of the cow and dog making a snowman haha.. very cute, but VERY random!! then there was a cartoon about a baseball team haha.. they really love their baseball here! after breakfast and showers, we went to the hundred-yen store, and i found some cute pink lights to put in my apartment. adds a little light in the evening when i don't want it too bright in here. on the way home, monica was saying how sad she was we didn't take pictures at jusco the night before, so i stopped at the lookout park and we took some pictures.i love their dog pooping pictures!! :) click on the picture to enlarge so you can get a better look!peace and love! :)after painting nails, more skyping, lunch, and watching some old school alvin and the chipmunks cartoons, i took her home. had a nice visit with her mom... she is such a fun lady :) i'm glad i've gotten the chance to get to know her! and i ended the night watching LOST!!! it's going to be such an amazing season.. and of course mind blowing! it's weird not having lost parties.. i miss my losties!! :)

sunday was skyping, grocery shopping, and then church. lina wanted me to try her church, and i'm glad i did. it's more like a bible study.. three families joined us (each with ADORABLE toddlers), so it's not very big. both secretaries from new life go to this church also, but they weren't there last night. it's a very laid-back atmosphere... after singing, we ask the pastor any questions we have about the bible, and then the pastor goes off that for what the lesson will be about that day. then we have prayer requests and eat snacks and visit for the remainder of the evening. one of the pastor's kids is such cutie.. and the biggest flirt! :) he is about three or four and he would not stop laughing.. cutest laugh i've ever heard! sometimes he got really excited and would speak in japanese to me.. no idea what he was saying haha! i just smiled at him and then he would laugh and laugh.

this weekend will be a busy one. on friday is night cafe (kind of like a talent show that the school puts on), and i'm helping with that.. should be fun! then on saturday is the cherry blossom festival.. VERY excited for that!! so there will definitely be LOTS of pictures coming soon!! :)

circus and slumber parties

friday was a half day so teacher's could work on grades. luckily, i finished my grades earlier in the week, so i took off early to head for the beach to do some reading (it was finally a nice day in the low 70s.. perfect here!).
saturday was a gorgeous day too, but not enough time to relax at the beach, so i went to a local bakery.. picked up some lunch.. and did the relaxing on my balcony :) there is a circus in okinawa called pop circus, and it only comes every two years or so. i was telling my class i really wanted to go, and i've become close with monica's (girl in my class) mom, so we made plans that i would stay at her house saturday night, and then go to the circus together. we invited lina to come too, so i picked her up and then met up with yumi (i don't know how to spell her name, but you pronounce it "youme") who had monica, lillian (monica's little sister), and hunter (goes to yumi's school she owns) in her car. yumi has been telling me that they just moved to a new place and that it was gorgeous, but i was not expecting what i saw!! it was unbeliveable. we parked under the building that looked like an apartment complex, but there were no other cars in the parking lot. the whole building was hers!! the first floor is parking, second floor is her school (called santa monica), third floor is empty for parties and meetings for the school, and the top floor is her house!! and she designed it all herself.. a very creative lady! after the tour (with lots of ooos and aaaaahs of course! the biggest oooo moment was when i saw that in the bathrooms, the toilet lid automatically lifts up when you first walk in and the toilet seat is heated.. talk about feeling pampered!) we relaxed on the huge couch and watched a movie while the kids were SUPER hyper. dinner was some delicious okinawan food.. and after dinner was the best part.. a bubble bath! first of all.. the separate room for the shower and tub looks like something out of a day spa. the whole room is the size of my living room haha. the tub was the size of a hot tub, and when you turn on the jets, colored lights come on at the bottom of the tub.. so cute! the water was steaming hot.. not used to that in my apartment! felt sooo good :)
the rest of the night was lots of laughing, talking with yumi about hot celebrities, and playing hello kitty grocery store with the kids.. and of course hide and seek!after a loooong night sleeping in monica's room (she snores.. so i didn't get much sleep haha) and having a yummy breakfast, we headed off to the circus! the circus is in itoman (southern okinawa), which is about a forty-five minute drive. it was a beautiful drive, so i didn't mind it at all. we got there early, so we did some waiting in line.. we kept ourselves occupied :)monica, lily, and hunter patiently waiting in long.. that didn't last long ;)lily and hunter in front of one of the signsafter anxiously waiting for an hour, we finally went in. they were really strict about no cameras and cell phones, so i just took one picture before it started, so you could see what it looked like.while waiting for the circus to start, music was playing that sounded like the clown part in disneyland's electrical parade. such a funny coincidence :) the circus was amazing. two clowns were the entertainment between the acts and sometimes mingled with the acts. some of the acts included:
*a bicycle routine, which ended with twelve people (six guys and six ladies) balancing on ONE bicycle.. that takes talent!
*an adorable dog act, which had about seven dogs doing different tricks. the craziest was when one little dog was lying on a lever, and the guy catapulted the little dog in the air and he landed on the guy's hand doing a handstand!! unbelievable.
*lots of aerial acts, like trapeze and silk (one of my favorites. a guy and lady used long silk fabric to float around the stage. one would wrap the silk around his/her arms while the other would only hang on to the partner. it was a beauiful act that showed a lot of strength!!).
*trampoline.. crazy stunts!
*guys dressed as power rangers (well that is what it looked to me haha) doing tricks through little circles in the middle of the stage, and the cicles would get progressively higher. that must take a lot of practice to find ways to fit through those circles and do it right every time!
*the CUTEST act ever was a clown driving a two-car train with stuffed animals in the back. he stops and gets out a giraffe, puts it on the ground, pretends to wind it up, and waits for it to start walking. well it doesn't, so he puts in away and gets out a zebra and does the same thing. this time it starts walking around and then falls "dead" until the clown winds it up again. it was sooo adorable! and then at the end, the clown rips off the costume and a cute little dog runs around the stage and then hops back in the train. the costume made the dog look like a real miniature zebra.. so cute!!the group! the line was a little long to get out of the parking lot, so lina had fun taking pictures trying to get the tent in the background :)the circus was about a 2 1/2 hour show with an intermission. during intermission ayana (one of my students) came up and said hi, so i went over to where she was sitting to say hi to her family. we saw them again during the chaos of trying to get out of the parking lot (didn't recognize them at first because they were using a different car i'm used to seeing, but luckily when they were trying to leave, i motioned that they could come out in front of me.. that is why you have to be nice to everyone! you never know who could be in the car haha!), and then at the food court at the mall. ayana had her heelys (the shoes that are also skates) on and was going up and down the halls haha.
if you look closely at the background, you can see the bridge we had to go on to get to itoman. and of course there is gorgeous turquoise water surrounding it!
across from that mall was ashibina mall, which was a huge outlet mall. super cute outdoor mall, but it's all name brand expensive stores, so i couldn't really buy anything haha. but it was fun to walk around and watch performances.we were all super tired from the day and decided to go back home. monica slept the whole way home, which was good because she was getting a little cranky haha. went home and watched a movie before heading to bed. glad there isn't any school today so i can re-energize before a week of school! :)

it's been a funny week...

it's only tuesday and my week has already been very entertaining! yesterday when i was coming home from my staff meeting, i noticed a police car in my apartment building's parking lot. i was hoping there wouldn't be a crime scene or something (i'm just paranoid haha.. and have an active imagination :) i've still yet to see a hint of bad behavior on this island). about five minutes after i got into my place and settled in, there was a knock at my door. looking through the peep hole, i saw the police man! i opened the door, and of course he started rambling off in japanese.. can't help him there! he started laughing and said thank you and left.. thought that was the end of him. five minutes goes by and there is a knock at the door again.. guess who?? :) i open the door and there he is with his cell phone for me to take haha. a guy was on the other end of the line translating for the police officer.. he was just checking on the apartment complex and wanted to know who lived there, and wanted to see my id. that made things easier because my alien card has ALL my information on it for him.. where i work, live, birthday... all that jazz. so the guy hung up and the cop starts writing down my information.. says "teacher?" to me in english and gets excited when i say yes haha. then he doesn't understand what new life academy is, so he looks all through his uniform to find his phone again (that was an adventure haha) and i have to talk to the guy again to explain what new life academy is and where it is in okinawa. then the cop talked to the guy and he got very excited (he must have easily understood where it was haha).. wrote a few more things down.. bowed to me about seven times saying thank you.. and that was the end of the cop.. and the 1/2 hour conversation! haha.. it was a very funny moment :)

funny moment of today... at lunch the girls wanted me to sit with them. so while we're eating, i pull out my apple (whole apple, not sliced), bite into it, and all the girls look at me with wide eyes and start screaming!! they start saying that i'm going to die!! and why?? because i'm eating the peeling!! haha.. i became VERY curious because i did realize that when my kids bring apples for lunch, they are sliced and peeled. i told them that the peeling is good for you and it won't kill you.. then i asked why they think i'm going to die from eating the whole apple. and this is the reason ALL the girls told me... drum roll please.. from SNOW WHITE! :) no joke. since snow white was poisoned by a whole red apple, they NEVER eat the peel.. that is why they want it sliced and peeled haha. they were serious when they were telling me!!! i laughed and told them not to worry.. my apple wasn't poisoned by the evil queen :) then one of the girls goes around the table whispering to the other girls and they start giggling. i finally got it out of them haha.. ayana was telling the girls that now someone has to kiss me since i ate the apple.. just like in snow white! haha.. these kids certainly do have personality.. and i LOVE it! :)

for dad...

dad wanted me to update.. so this is for you!! :) this week was tiring because i wasn't use to getting up that early haha. it was nice to see my kids again.. i've missed them! they weren't used to being back in school either, because they sure were crazy this week! my class was in charge of chapel this week, so we had four days to practice a skit.. they did really well. it didn't seem like they were as nervous as the first time, which was good haha. we performed the story of joseph the dreamer. i taught them the story earlier in the school year, so this was a nice review for them.
thursday i taught the conversation english class.. always interesting conversations! :) it was fun to hear about their traditions for new years.. i found out that one popular dish in mainland japan is eggs with SUGAR on top... never heard of that before!! don't really want to try it either haha.

some things i'm looking forward to...
*there is a circus in town for about a month.. and it is a legit circus.. tent and all! it only comes every two years or so, so i'm glad it came when i am here! :) hopefully i'll see it in the next couple weeks.
*the 47th annual nago cherry blossom festival is the last weekend in january. i'm excited to see them in bloom.. definitely a picture moment! :) but then again.. what isn't a picture moment here?

happy new year!!

to start off, i had a wonderful time at home. i already can't wait to see you again! :) and a few are starting to make plans to come visit.. you better be good and save your money! :)
i arrived back in okinawa on the 30th. i wanted to do something fun for new year's eve (and japanese style), so i looked up some events happening around the area and called lina (a high-schooler at new life) to come with me. we ended up going to american village.. they had "countdown street live" which had live performances from 4pm-12:15am. there are shops all around american village and jusco (giant target), so we had fun browsing while we waited for the countdown to get a little closer. i had a wonderful new year's eve dinner that consisted of mcdonald's :) a little different than my traditional seafood dinner with the family haha. after we watched a couple bands perform, lina and i decided to go on the ferris wheel! i've driven passed and seen that ferris wheel so many times.. it was about time i rode in it! it looks like the thing hardly moves, but it only takes about ten minutes to go completely around.the wind started blowing really hard at the top.. a few screams came from lina :) she also freaked out when i stood up and was walking around hahaa decoration for the new yeari finally did it! :) it was an exciting momentin front of one of the shopping centers at american villagewhen we got back to the concert, i was soo excited that breakdancers were going to perform! the japanese are really talented in music and dancing.. and breakdancing is no exception!! (and for the anonymous friend.. this is a video) :)

throughout the night there were many famous bands from okinawa. this band has one of their songs on tv for a hotel.. i'm thinking that i've actually seen it before because the song sounded really familiar! i'll have to listen closer now when i watch japanese tv!aria asia was amazing!!! there was guitar, bass, drums, and she played the violin.. so beautiful!! and the guy also had an electric guitar.. such a great sound!here's a video of them performing...


the countdown is at zero!!! happy new year!the lights on the ferris wheel counted down to zero and then started flashingthen fireworks exploded over the ocean some of the other bands joined aria asia on stage and together they performed a traditional okinawan folk song called shima-uta. the video is too large to upload it here, which makes me sad because i wanted you to listen to it!!people from the audience got onstage and started dancing to celebrate.. so fun!i had to get her cd!we had a little adventure trying to get out of the parkade (mine was the only car left and all the exits were closed but one.. that was fun trying to figure out which one haha!). it was an unforgettable new year's eve celebration.. hello 2009!!